Plugin Review: LayerSlider WP

I recently had the need for a responsive, full-width slider that allowed buttons with different links and ended up choosing LayerSlider WP by kreatura. Although this slider has a lot of really great features, I didn’t find it as intuitive as I expected. One of the trade offs in a plugin that has so many options is the loss of simplicity. Here I’d like to list some of the problems I’ve run into so hopefully I can save you some time and frustration if you decide to use this plugin.

My first issue is with the support. When I had a problem, the support link only took me to a FAQ page without any obvious method of reporting an issue or asking for help. I understand that supporting plugins takes up a lot of time, but this is a paid plugin, so I was really hoping for an easier method.

In creating new slides, you will first upload your background image, which is easy to do right at the top.

Then you will drop down to the bottom to create your layers of text, other images, videos or buttons. Each layer can be set with it’s own transition timing and style, which is a really nice feature.

You will see there is an option to use Image, Text, HTML/Video/Audio, or Dynamic content from posts.

One note here is that if you want to use one of the headings, you have to be careful about text wrapping. The default CSS is set to

white-space: nowrap;

so I had to overwrite it for my very long title. Also, be sure to use the correct setting because buttons and HTML will not work within the Text option.

Finally, I had a lot of trouble with creating the correct centering on responsive. For mobile and tablet, I had a hard time centering the text. For each individual layer, there is an option to set it’s placement, but I found it just didn’t work well when scaled down to mobile size. I had to write a lot of custom CSS to make sure it reformatted correctly for the smaller viewports.

One of the plus sides is the large number of transitions available, however there was an issue with the fade transition (which is one of my favorites to use) when combined with other transition easings which was causing my buttons to flash on the screen briefly before they would fade in. I eventually fixed this by removing the fade on the transition out and teaming the transition in with the easeInCubic easing. With so many options for transitions, it can be confusing to know what settings to use. For the novice, I recommend leaving the default settings in place and not trying to go for anything fancy.

And finally, I found that after finally centering the buttons for mobile, after the first round of slides, the buttons shift to the left and are off-center, for no apparent reason. Again, I couldn’t figure out a way to ask for support on this issue, so I don’t know if the plugin author has an answer.

Pros

Allows full width, responsive images

Allows endless number of sliders, slides and layers

Easy to rearrange slide order and layer order

Very simple to add a background image to the slide

Huge number of transition options

Cons

Cannot name slides – I prefer to do this so I can easily find the slide I’m looking for when there are many, however, you can name the slide layers

Cannot use full width videos

Layers don’t scale well with responsive, although images scale great

Minor problems with fade transition

Conclusion:

I know I have listed a lot of problems here, but don’t get me wrong. LayerSlider WP is a great option to create multiple responsive, full-width sliders with multiple layers and transitions, however there are some quirks that can be frustrating. If you are using a single extra layer with a short title, you probably won’t run into these problems. For an example of the LayerSlider WP in use, see the site I have created here: brandonessentials.com/